Multi-Tasking
As the plane headed up to altitude today, I pulled out my iPod, anxious to listen to some Mercy Me songs I had recently downloaded. I had my eyes closed, prayed for a while, listened closely to the words, lost in the music and the worship and completely oblivious to the things going on around me.
When I finally looked up after what must have been 15 or 20 minutes, the “in flight entertainment” had started. A show called “Time Warp” was playing on the video monitor not more than three feet from my face. My iPod was still on with the music playing, and yet I was intrigued by the show. After watching for a few minutes, I realized that I had missed a couple songs on the iPod, and even though I had no sound from the video and only sound from the iPod, I had no clue what just played. As I then focused on the iPod and listened intently to the words of the songs, even though I stared at the video screen, the images on the screen weren’t registering and after a few minutes of that I realized I had lost track with the plot or focus of the show.
That got me thinking about multi-tasking again. I CAN’T. Even as I type this, I have my iPod blaring in my ears and I just realized that by focusing on what I’m typing I have completely lost track of what’s playing on the iPod and now I’ve missed a couple of songs again.
That got me thinking even more. I spent over 6 hours on the phone yesterday, much of that time in operating company reviews and board meetings. I was fortunate enough to be on a conference bridge from home office, only by voice and not by video. And while the discussion was going on quite passionately by the other participants in Alaska and Northern Virginia, I was attempting to do other work and catch up on the enormous number of tasks that had gotten left behind during the myriad of lengthy meetings I had in the previous days. As I reviewed spreadsheets and presentations about those other issues, I realized that I’d lost track of the conversation on the phone even though I’d heard every word but not listened to any of them. So I’d reengage on the conference call and focus intently on what was being said until another trigger of some kind got me thinking about a different issue and then my mind would wander away from the call and focus once again on the item in front of me on the laptop.
So that got me thinking even more than more because those on that call and those bombarding me with emails or text messages all wanted my undivided attention. Their issues were very important to them and they expected that same level of attention and importance from me. But I didn’t do any of them justice and certainly didn’t show any appropriate level of concern about their issues while I was floating in and out of attention and being constantly distracted or diverted when I needed to be intimately focused on them.
As I sit here now thinking this through, I’ve missed another couple songs on the iPod even though it’s been loudly playing all along and it’s on my favorite play list, and I’ve missed about 5 minutes of the in flight video even though it’s visible only 3 feet from my face and it was a very intriguing show. In addition, I’ve missed the cabin crew pass by twice, once with snacks and once with beverage refills as I’ve focused down on this blog and been completely oblivious to the people passing by and the activities all around me. I do look up though when they tap me on the shoulder and break my train of thought, and then I have to take a few seconds to get back on message when I get what they offer and then focus back on the typing at hand.
The more I ponder this now, the more I realize that I am a single sensory input guy. If I see something intriguing, I intently watch, but I miss the sounds. If I hear something intriguing, I listen intently but then I miss many of the visual queues happening all around. If I smell something intriguing, I quit listening and start looking, seeking out where it’s coming from and lose track of anything I hear around me. No two of these senses seem to act in perfect unison…they seem to flip back and forth, rapidly enough to possibly compliment each other but certainly not timed so perfectly that they create synergy and synchronicity.
And the more I ponder, the more I wonder how many things I’ve missed or how many people I’ve impacted while I try to multi-task knowing that I can’t. For example, when I’m reading that email message that came in on the blackberry during that critical decision briefing on priority of spending or needed personnel actions, what did I miss while I was reading and responding rather than listening and contributing? Or, even more scary, when I’m heatedly talking on the phone while driving to anywhere, and I get to my destination not remembering anything I passed along the way, who might have been adversely impacted by my focus on the conversation and my complete lack of attention to driving?
Many, many, many folks have told me that I can’t do two things at once and certainly can’t focus on what’s being said if I have anything else going on around me. My wife will actually quit talking now if I zone out on her and zone into something else. When I give her the courtesy of reengaging, then she might start talking again.  At work, folks haven’t taken that same approach, but after doing this brief study today at altitude, maybe they should as well. It wouldn’t take me long to realize the impact I was having on all those around me if they too quit talking or sat patiently waiting for me to give them the courtesy of focusing on their issues rather than the myriad of less important issues happening all around me.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the world is going to help me out on this issue. While I need to focus more, technology is giving us more tools to provide more distractions rather than less. While I need to shrink the number of senses feeding me input at any one time, technology is bombarding us with more video, more messaging, more audio, more imagery, and all at the same time.
At a time where assimilation of multi-sensory information is critical and being able to multi-task is more important than ever, I obviously can’t.
That’s somewhat disturbing to me for some reason right now.
PS. As I finish this now, I realize “Amazing Grace” by Il Divo is on the iPod and the flight attendants are cleaning up the cabin. Graciously, they still brought me another cup of coffee even though things were all put away. Thankfully, “through many dangers, toils and snares…grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.”